It's
sunny and warm in Boone County, Indiana, with strong winds blowing from
the south. A warning
was issued for low-level wind sheer, so the cranes and crew are
standing down.

Meanwhile, at
Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, Tom Stehn took another aerial census yesterday.
He now estimates the number of whooping cranes present at 45 adults + 4
young = 49 total.The
Lobstick adult pair was reported at Aransas on October 25th, just 8 days
after leaving Saskatchewan. This pair has 2 chicks with them, the first
set of "twins" to make it to Aransas since 1997. About 75 percent
of the the only remaining natural wild flock of whoopers is still migrating.
Stay tuned!

Did you
make a tally mark for another no-fly day on your migration
chart? Operation Migration's Heather Ray made a helpful chart with
day-by-day comparisons for all three migrations. Look at Heather's
chart (thanks, Heather!) and answer these questions:

1. The
stopover at Hiwassee NWR in Tennessee marks halfway for the journey
south. How many stopover sites remain before this year's cranes reach
Hiwassee?

2. If
they fly tomorrow and every day after that, what's the earliest date
they could reach Hiwassee? Looking at the number of no-fly days between
Boone County and Hiwassee in past years, how likely are this year's
birds to reach halfway faster than the 2001 and 2002 migrations did?

3. Write
a sentence that compares this year's migrations to the past two.